Dewhurst, immigration and the missing link

The link to a 2007 speech by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in which he said he supported a guest worker program “for those here today illegally” is no longer accessible on his official state Web site.

The campaign of Ted Cruz, battling Dewhurst for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, had highlighted the link after the lieutenant governor in their debate said he’d oppose a guest worker program unless the border was secured.

Dewhurst campaign adviser Mark Miner said when I asked when and why it had been removed, “We don’t have any coordination with the state office. How would I know?”

Dewhurst’s spokeswoman in his state office, Lauren Thurston, said his office had asked that the secretary of the Senate archive all his speeches last year — meaning that they were to be pulled off of his public Web site but kept internally by the office.

There previously had been a place on the site that people could click to get to Dewhurst’s speeches. That section was removed, but this speech and some number of others remained on the site, Thurston said — below the surface, but accessible.

Dewhurst’s state staff became aware that the speech including immigration was lingering after getting telephone calls about it, Thurston said, so the secretary of the Senate was asked to complete the job of removing the speeches.

Thurston said she’s not sure how many other speeches stayed on the site after last year’s directive.

Cruz’s campaign jumped on the removal of the speech, dubbing it “Operation Whitewash.”

Houston lawyer Joe Larsen, an expert in public information, doesn’t see an issue with regard to the law on open records, since the speeches still are available.

“There’s no requirement that once you put it up on a Web site that it has to stay up on a Web site that I’m aware of,” Larsen said.

Cruz’s camp made an issue of the missing link the same day that Dewhurst’s campaign hit the former solicitor general over failing to file his personal financial disclosure on time. Cruz was fined $200. His campaign said he has submited the payment and his completed disclosure form.

The Texas Tribune reported that the Cruz campaign said didn’t realize it was late in filing the report until the news outlet asked about it.